Reciprocal
by mimma
Summary: Zaraki and Unohana like things about each other. Complete.
1. Observer

**Observer**

He likes watching her.

In the infrequent times they're together (they get days off, and spend those afternoons out), he likes hanging a little way back from her, watching the sway of her hips, the way she holds her shoulders, and the curve of her neck (she wears her hair up for these times, and the pale smooth slight depression at the back of her neck right at her hairline is a wonderful place to kiss).

He likes watching women in general (they're so soft and smooth and fragile, and they move with grace and strength and intent, like a talented fighter), but watching her is all of those things and quite a little more, because she simply does what she intends to (harder than it sounds), there is absolutely no wasted movement. She is precisely where she wants to be _when _she wants to be, and not where she does not.

He thinks he would like to see her fight with a skilled opponent (not him, because then he couldn't watch), and he thinks that she will move with just that grace, and unless her opponent understands that economy of movement, he would drive himself mad looking for her at places where his blade is not.

He likes watching that grace in her. He's a very physical person (yeah, yeah. Rub it in) and her body language speaks to him- _this is a supremely self-confident woman, who knows what she can and cannot do,_ and operates within those limits so efficiently that it is as though she has no limits at all.

Sometimes she makes tea for him –not in his quarters, nor in hers, but in a (quality) inn in Seireitei where there are no misinformed idiots who gawk at them, wondering what someone like her is doing with someone like him (he wonders this himself)- and watching her do all of that with her contained actions (the sweeping movements of her hands, the fall of her hair over her serene countenance, and most of all the beautiful curve of her neck) is domestic, homely, and calms him like the sight of Yachiru snoring away.

After she makes it she'll pour it for him and a bit after that she'll taste like tea and be warm and soft in his arms.

When they walk back later, there will be a lazy swing to her walk, a bit of tension gone from her shoulders, a dreamy little half-smile just for him.

He'll walk a little way behind her, watching the sway of her hips, the curve of her neck, and she'll turn a bit and give him that tiny, shy smile.

He likes watching her.

-end-

**a/n: **my friend beta'd this and said… 'this is sooo like porn' …which worries me. Even worse…this is the closest I am EVER going to get to writing Zaraki/Unohana fluff.


	2. Treatment

**Treatment**

She likes treating him.

She likes treating a lot of people- the fulfillment when they get up and walk, alive and soon-to-be well, is the main reason she's in the 4th division.

She can't treat him the normal way- his ridiculous eye patch eats up her reiatsu faster than it does his, because that's just how 'bloody badass' his reiatsu is. If he takes it off, his aura is so strong she can't concentrate. (This had a lot to do with a person's aura reflecting their base feelings, and the kind of base thoughts Kenpachi had when she placed her hands on his bare skin.)

She likes treating him- seeing him come in near death or with wounds that _should_ herald death, when he's still so full of life even with it seeping (gushing, actually, if he's coming for treatment) out of him, some bright spot in knowing that she doesn't have to try to save him while around her people die no matter how hard she strives.

She likes the sheer _aliveness_ of him, the life that he emanates over everything he does, characteristic of a fighter (healers are too shadowed by silent death to be loud) - characteristic of _him_, this brash man who celebrates life with blood and death.

When she bandages him –when she wraps linen around hard muscles and warm skin- he'll be complaining about how he doesn't _need so man bloody bandages, Retsu_, and how he needs some _personal attention, nurse_ (half on top of him, pulled there by healthy hands, she smiles).

She likes treating him- likes feeling his strong pulse and warm grip instead of the hesitant heartbeat and clammy skin of the patients, his loud voice and even breathing instead of their fading gasps and labored breaths.

Most of all, about treating him- she likes knowing that he's so alive, and that he's not changing anytime soon.

When she treats him, he'll complain about being coddled, then shamelessly demand 'personal attention' (with a smirk that makes her blush) and her to feed him, and then hang around for hours, distracting her.

This time, on her way out he gooses her, and she's so surprised she squawks and overbalances into his arms. Looking up backwards at his manic grin, aware o the people sticking their heads into the room, held to his warm firmness by a hand the size of her head, she begins to laugh, loud and long.

She likes treating him.

-end-


End file.
